Ancient Glass Bracelet Decorated with Menorahs Found in Israel

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Archaeologists in Israel recently unearthed a glass bracelet
decorated with a timely design. The ancient piece of jewelry is
engraved with a seven-branched candelabrum, or menorah — the
symbol of the Hanukkah holiday.

The bracelet was discovered in Mount Carmel National Park, which
researchers think was a large settlement during the late Roman or
early
Byzantine period. Archaeologistshave been working in the
park, a declared antiquities site, before the excavation of a new
water reservoir in the area.

During a routine dig last Thursday (Dec. 18), a team of
excavators uncovered a box containing hundreds of glass fragments
that had been thrown into a refuse pit. Among the old pieces of
glass was a small fragment of decorated glass from an ancient
bracelet. [ The
Holy Land: 7 Amazing Archaeological Finds ]

"After cleaning, we were excited to discover that the bracelet,
which is made of turquoise colored glass, is decorated with
symbols of the seven-branched menorah – the same menorah which
according to tradition was kept alight in the temple for eight
days by means of a single cruse of oil," Limor Talmi and Dan
Krizner, excavation directors for the Israel Antiquities
Authority, said in a statement.

The bracelet was likely
stamped with the menorah symbols when it was still hot,
according to the excavation directors. The single fragment
features two menorahs, each with the traditional seven branches,
but with one menorah also depicting a single flame above each
branch.

Glass bracelets embossed with the menorah symbol are not an
unusual find in the region, according to Yael Gorin-Rosen, head
of the ancient glass department of the Israel Antiquities
Authority, who said that such symbols have been found on jewelry
in Lebanon, Syria and Israel. Other common symbols found on glass
jewelry from this period (at the end of the fourth century or
beginning of the fifth century A.D.) include lions and other
animals, as well as
images of gods, he said.

"Jewelry such as this was found in excavations, usually in the
context of
funerary offerings. It is unusual to find such objects in
settlement strata, and even rarer to discover them in an ancient
refuse pit," Rosen-Gorin said in a statement.

Researchers are now trying to determine what this piece of
jewelry decorated with Jewish symbols was doing in the garbage
pit of an ancient settlement in the upper Carmel region. While
it's possible that Jews lived in the area during the late Roman
and early Byzantine periods, archaeologists have also
hypothesized that the large settlement in the region was once
home to Christians, pagans or Samaritans.

The researchers think the bracelet may have been made in a
workshop in the region to be shipped elsewhere. This hypothesis
makes sense in light of the fact that other glass debris,
including pieces of windowpanes and glass vessels, were found in
the same refuse pit. The region where the bracelet was found may
have been part of an industrial area, where goods were produced
for nearby households, as well as other markets, the researchers
said.